{"id":35529,"date":"2024-06-12T23:18:55","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T15:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=35529"},"modified":"2026-03-10T22:43:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T14:43:21","slug":"cebu-2024-day-05-snorkeling-malapascua-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2024\/06\/12\/cebu-2024-day-05-snorkeling-malapascua-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Cebu 2024 – Day 05 – Snorkeling @ Malapascua Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 05: we checked out of Radisson Blu Cebu early in the morning, had a quick brunch at McDonald’s, then started the long 3.5-hour drive to the northern tip of Cebu Island, where we were received by our guide for the next two days. The boat ride from Maya Port was in calm waters again. I’d been really lucky this trip: I haven’t suffered even the slightest vertigo this vacation, compared to our Maldives trip in 2019.<\/p>\n

Arriving at Malapascua Island<\/strong>, we swapped to a smaller boat that took us around the waters off the island. We snorkeled at four different spots, including a place where baby sharks hang around, a coral garden, and also the wreck of a Japanese cargo ship sunk during World War II. Like in the Maldives, much of the coral we saw was lifeless, though we did see a few live patches. The Japanese ship marine sanctuary was a little disappointing, on account that only the skeletal structure of the ship remains.<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, apart from the whale watching and sardine run spots, the snorkeling in this Cebu trip has felt somewhat less interesting compared to what we saw in the Maldives. The waters are clear for the most part, but we saw less interesting marine life, and it was harder to extract the best moments from the numerous underwater videos we took for the highlight compilations. It’s also probably because the snorkeling spots we visited around Malapascua Island were all several meters deep. And since all four of us were wearing life vests, it made it hard to dive down for closer looks: we frequently had to rely on our guide to help us with that.<\/p>\n

Still, comparing this trip to the Maldives, I reckon all of us are a little better at snorkeling now. We at least know what to expect, have come better prepared, and were blessed with relatively calm waters and excellent weather throughout.<\/p>\n

Pictures!<\/p>\n

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At Maya Port and boarding the boat for our private excursion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Very sunny noontime at Malapascua Island.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Spotted a couple of seabirds fiercely protecting their nest: they swooped down to peck the boatmen when we sailed past, presumably because they thought we were threatening them!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A sumptuous lunch was prepared for us as part of the excursion. There was so much food that we could only finish half of it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Marine life we spotted while snorkeling.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The waters here were a few meters deep, and since we were wearing life vests, we couldn’t easily dive down for closer looks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Japanese shipwreck marine sanctuary.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Day 05 movement plan: the long journey from Cebu City and then northwards to Malapascua Island.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We’d be staying a night in Malapascua, then on Day 06 making our way to Bohol. To be continued!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 05: we checked out of Radisson Blu Cebu early in the morning, had a quick brunch at McDonald’s, then started the long 3.5-hour drive to the northern tip of Cebu Island, where we were received by our guide for<\/p>\n

Read More Cebu 2024 – Day 05 – Snorkeling @ Malapascua Island<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[681],"class_list":["post-35529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-cebu-2024","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/blog-2024-cebu-day-05-P6120701.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35529"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38216,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35529\/revisions\/38216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}